Culture That Made Me: Jerry Fish on David Bowie, John Cooper Clarke and more
Jerry Fish plays Coughlan's and St Luke's in Cork.Ā
Born in Dublin in 1962, Gerard Whelan, aka Jerry Fish, grew up in south London. In 1988, he co-founded An Emotional Fish, which is famous for the indie rock anthem 'Celebrate'. A few years after disbanding, he formed Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club which released its debut album, , in 2002.He releases an album of Daniel Johnston covers, , on November 15. Upcoming Cork gigs include Coughlans, Sunday, Nov 17; and St Lukes, Friday, Feb 22.
In the 70s, I was part of a mania for T. Rex and Marc Bolan. It knocked me for six. I never recovered. It was a sexual feeling. He was beautiful, a cherub. I was enamoured by the look of the man, the sound of T. Rex. I remember a 45 single I played repeatedly; he had a personal Christmas message on the end of it. He felt approachable. He also introduced me to David Bowie.
With Bowie, we now know we were in the company of a genius. I was lucky to have met him. The incredible gift Bowie, who was a Brixton boy, had was he would disarm you with a very down-to-earth, āAlright mate?ā. He made you feel like you were bigger than him. He was obviously a genius artist, but also a very grounded human being.
Lou Reed was a New York fantasy. He had that androgyny ā that Walk on the Wild Side. I met him once and I said to him, āI'd like to shake your hand.ā And he said, āNow you just have.ā Thereās a dark side to Lou that's attractive. His voice is appealing. I listened to albums like at a time in my life when I was in a bedsit. It was just me and Lou.
Iggy Pop is the best live performer I've seen. Heās a massive inspiration. Heās fearless. Iām paraphrasing a quote here, but heās somebody on the edge and people are fixated by people on the edge. Are they gonna fall off? We don't really go there. We just like to watch them go to that edge. Iggy does that. Heās also an affable character. His radio show, his voice.
I saw Iggy Pop in Dublinās Olympia in 2002. He stages a lot of the aggression, swinging his mic around. He put cages on the boxes at the Olympia so he wasn't gonna harm anybody when he was smashing his mic against these cages.Ā
I love visual art. I guess from travelling, when youāre often on your own. I love the silence. To stand where a painter stood and to reach out and imagine making the stroke yourself is an amazing feeling. I consider myself a dear friend of Picasso's Guernica. Itās in the Prado. Whenever I'm in Madrid, that's a friend I have to visit. My first experience drew me to it. It used to have its own museum in Madrid, so the painting was a centrepiece. Around it were drawings of the studies. You could see how he made a tearful eye from a cup that's tilted and the water is flowing out so itās endless tears in an image. Itās such a political painting.
John Cooper Clarke turned a lot of us onto poetry. There's a touch of Iggy about him. His poems are incredibly humorous. I love the rhyme and the rhythm. In the early 80s, a John Cooper Clarke poetry record was one you had along with Elvis Costello & The Attractions and other post-punk records. He broke through a barrier. Heās so true to himself. We now know the Arctic Monkeys got their sound from him. I'm a massive fan.
I've just done an album called with MayKay, which comes out in November. Itās all Daniel Johnston songs, a singer-songwriter from Austin, Texas who died in 2019. He writes stuff from the heart and with such innocence. He has a lack of a filter thatās difficult for myself and other songwriters to cross. He just spat it out. His songs are heartbreaking. Then he can also be so amusing. Lines like, āDo yourself a favour: become your own savior.ā
I grew up with a lot of West Indian people and their culture so I love Linton Kwesi Johnson. Thereās a song of his Iāve been listening to a lot because of what's going on in the world at the moment: āFascist, and they attack, Then we counter attack, Then we'll drive them back.ā We have a tendency to forget how much we had to battle with that bullshit. It's a constant in society since he was writing about it in theā 80s.
The bass player with An Emotional Fish was Enda Wyatt. He was a poet. He passed away a few years ago. He was my mentor. He got me into Jack Kerouac, William S Burroughs, Allen Ginsburg and the beat poets. I was a beach bum. I slept on beaches when I was a kid, moving around. I found the way. It was great to realise you don't need anything. A sleeping bag will do you. So Kerouacās On the Road was an influence. With Kerouac it was the rhythm and the musicality and the wit. Thereās a line in a Kerouac poem, āI'd rather be thin than famous, but I'm not.āĀ
Angela Carterās has this powerful feminine force behind it. Itās a story about an acrobat, a cockney Venus born in London. She's got wings and little feathers so they call her āFeathersā. Angela Carter takes you on an incredible journey. Thereās a circus guy in it who can't see the clouds for the silver lining. I love that circus world. Itās something I'm very much involved in. Itās one of the best reads I've ever encountered.
Thereās a trio of clowns from Barcelona called Los ExcĆ©ntricos. I saw their show in Amsterdam. The woman selling tickets at the ticket office was grumpy. In the queue, there were two guys going, āMake them laugh, make them laughā on a squeeze box, with a glass of wine on the end of the squeeze box. The same lady selling tickets got you into your seat. She was really flustered. She was also the first person on stage. She hoisted up her skirt like a mini. The skirt went on for a mile, the longest youāve seen in your life, as she kept pulling it into shape. Next, they handed her a ukulele and it got caught in her hair. I was rolling around the place laughing. I often say, āIām from a long line of clowns and Iām the first to realise it.āĀ
